Natural laws controlling algorithm structure?

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Natural laws controlling algorithm structure?

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ACM SIGPLAN Notices archive
Volume 7 , Issue 2 (February 1972) table of contents

Pages: 19 - 26

Year of Publication: 1972

ISSN:0362-1340

Author

M. H. Halstead

Purdue University

Publisher

ACM New York, NY, USA

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Downloads (6 Weeks): 0, Downloads (12 Months): 17, Citation Count: 24

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abstract references cited by collaborative colleagues

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ABSTRACT

In this preliminary report, a hypothesis is developed to the effect that algorithms, considered as distrillations of thought, may possess a general structure which obeys physical laws. Testing the hypothesis against measurements of published algorithms does not disprove it.

REFERENCES

Note: OCR errors may be found in this Reference List extracted from the full text article. ACM has opted to expose the complete List rather than only correct and linked references.

	1	See, for example, Joseph H. Kennan, "Thermodynamics," MIT Press 1970, page 19.
	2	Claude F. Shannon, "The Mathematical Theory of Communication," Bell Systems Technical Journal, July and October, 1948, also reprinted by University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1949 and 1963.
	3	M. H. Halstead, "A Laboratory Manual for Operating System and Compiler Implementation," Mimeographed, In press.
	4	Maurice H Halstead, Machine-independent computer programming, Spartan Books, 1962
	5	Robert Edward Noonan, Computer programming with a dynamic algebra, 1971
	6	R. J. Herbold, Algorithms: QuadI, Communications of the ACM, v.3 n.2, p.74, Feb. 1960 [doi>10.1145/366959.366964]
	7	J. Wegstein, Algorithms: rootfinder, Communications of the ACM, v.3 n.2, p.74, Feb. 1960 [doi>10.1145/366959.366965]
	8	A. A. Grau, Solution of polynomial equation by Bairstow-Hitchcock method, Communications of the ACM, v.3 n.2, p.74-75, Feb. 1960 [doi>10.1145/366959.366966]
	9	S. Gorn, Algorithms: bisection routine, Communications of the ACM, v.3 n.3, p.174, March 1960 [doi>10.1145/367149.367173]
	10	Dorothea S. Clarke, Algorithms: Bessel function I, series expansion, Communications of the ACM, v.3 n.4, p.240, April 1960 [doi>10.1145/367177.367229]
	11	Dorothea S. Clarke, Algorithms: Bessel function I, asymptotic expansion, Communications of the ACM, v.3 n.4, p.240, April 1960 [doi>10.1145/367177.377894]
	12	Robert Claussen, Algorithms: Euclidean algorithm, Communications of the ACM, v.3 n.4, p.240, April 1960 [doi>10.1145/367177.377892]
	13	Peter Naur, et al, Alg. 8. Euler Summation, CACM V3, N5 May 1960 pp. 311.
	14	Peter Naur, et al, Alg. 9, Runge-Kutta Integration, CACM V3, N5, May 1960 pp. 312.
	15	G. M. Galler, Algorithms: evaluation of the Chebyshev polynomial Tn(X) by recursion, Communications of the ACM, v.3 n.6, p.353, June 1960 [doi>10.1145/367297.367323]
	16	G. M. Galler, Algorithms: evaluation of the Hermite polynomial Hn(X) by recursion, Communications of the ACM, v.3 n.6, p.353, June 1960 [doi>10.1145/367297.367326]
	17	G. M. Galler, Algorithms: evaluation of the Laguerre polynomial Ln(X) by recursion, Communications of the ACM, v.3 n.6, p.353, June 1960 [doi>10.1145/367297.367329]
	18	G. M. Galler, Algorithms: evaluation of the Legendre polynomial Pn(X) by recursion, Communications of the ACM, v.3 n.6, p.353, June 1960 [doi>10.1145/367297.367332]
	19	A. Beam, Algorithms 13: complex exponential integral, Communications of the ACM, v.3 n.7, p.406, July 1960 [doi>10.1145/367349.367351]
	20	Jean E. Sammet, "Problems in, and a Pragmatic Approach to, Programming Language Measurement." FJCC 1971, V39, pp. 243--251.

CITED BY 24

	Necdet Bulut , M. H. Halstead , Rudolf Bayer, Experimental validation of a structural property of fortran algorithms, Proceedings of the 1974 annual conference, p.207-211, January 1974
	Lawrence Hunter , Jose C. Ingojo, Conservation of software science parameters across modularization, Proceedings of the 1977 annual conference, p.189-194, January 1977
	Peter G. Hamer , Gillian D. Frewin, M.H. Halstead's Software Science - a critical examination, Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Software engineering, p.197-206, September 13-16, 1982, Tokyo, Japan
	Siba N. Mohanty, Models and Measurements for Quality Assessment of Software, ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), v.11 n.3, p.251-275, Sept. 1979
	Gary W. Cobb, A measurement of structure for unstructured programming languages, ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, v.3 n.5, p.140-147, November 1978
	Maurice Halstead , Rudolf Bayer, Algorithm dynamics, Proceedings of the annual conference, p.126-135, August 27-29, 1973, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
	Alan R. Feuer , Edward B. Fowlkes, Some results from an empirical study of computer software, Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Software engineering, p.351-355, September 17-19, 1979, Munich, Germany
	Ann Fitzsimmons , Tom Love, A Review and Evaluation of Software Science, ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), v.10 n.1, p.3-18, March 1978
	Daniel Schutzer, On the specification and quantification of software performance objectives, Proceedings of the 1977 annual conference, p.181-188, January 1977
	M. H. Halstead, Toward a theoretical basis for estimating programming effort, Proceedings of the 1975 annual conference, p.222-224, January 1975
	H. L. Berghel , D. L. Sallach, Measurements of program similarity in identical task environments, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.19 n.8, August 1984
	James L. Elshoff, Measuring commercial PL/I programs using Halstead's criteria, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.11 n.5, p.38-46, May 1976
	S. K. Robinson , I. S. Torsun, The automatic measurement of the relative merits of student programs, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.12 n.4, p.80-93, April 1977
	Larry Weissman, Psychological complexity of computer programs: an experimental methodology, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.9 n.6, p.25-36, June 1974
	M. H. Halstead, Language level, a missing concept in information theory, ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review, v.2 n.1, p.7-9, March 1973
	S. K. Bandyopadhyay, Theoretical relationships between potential operands and basic measurable properties of algorithm structure, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.16 n.2, p.26-34, February 1981
	Jose C. Ingojo, Modularization in the pilot compiler and its effect on the length, Proceedings of the annual conference, p.554-557, October 20-22, 1976, Houston, Texas, United States
	Necdet Bulut , M. H. Halstead, Invariant properties of algorithms, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.8 n.6, June 1973
	Neodet Bulut , Maurice H. Halstead, Impurities found in algorithm implementations, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.9 n.3, March 1974
	M. H. Halstead, An experimental determination of the "purity" of a trivial algorithm, ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review, v.2 n.1, p.10-15, March 1973
	K. J. Ottenstein, An algorithmic approach to the detection and prevention of plagiarism, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.8 n.4, p.30-41, Dec. 1976
	R. D. Gordon , M. H. Halstead, An experiment comparing Fortran programming times with the software physics hypothesis, Proceedings of the June 7-10, 1976, national computer conference and exposition, June 07-10, 1976, New York, New York
	M. H. Halstead, Language selection for applications, Proceedings of the June 4-8, 1973, national computer conference and exposition, June 04-08, 1973, New York, New York
	S. H. Zweben, A recent approach to the study of algorithms, Proceedings of the 1974 annual ACM conference, January 01-01, 1974

Collaborative Colleagues:

M. H. Halstead: colleagues

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